This is a type of post I am rather reluctant to do. The reason is I don't want to give the enemy forces ideas they may not already have. However, I've come to the conclusion they probably already know about this stuff and are merely biding their time to go after this area as a "loophole" in the gun laws. I'm sure it is on their agenda but other issues have a higher priority at the moment.
With that said...
Everything that might allow someone to own a gun is a "loophole" to the anti-gun forces. If the law doesn't forbid it somehow explicitly or likewise spell it out as allowed in detail, it must be a loophole.
Today we are going to discuss biggest so-called "loophole" going when it comes to guns. Many anti-gun forces toss out the "gun show loophole" as their big one to close. They describe it as a threat to public safety and one that undermines their ability to institute many glorious decades of total gun control*.
Unfortunately for them, they're wrong. Even if they manage to close the non-existent "gun show loophole", they've manage to miss the Big One. Or maybe not. Maybe this one is next on the list when they are done with the gun shows.
For the record, this is not a loophole. What I am going to show you is part of existing BATFE regulations. It is a permitted activity under the law.
For the necessary background, here are the four ways in which one can acquire a gun in this country:
1) Buy One Through a Licensed Dealer (FFL)
Number one is the most familiar one to the average person. It is where you go to a dealer, either at a store front or a gun show, fill out the background check paperwork, pass the check and take your gun home. I've discussed or commented on this process in the past and won't elaborate further here.
2) Buy One Intrastate Through a Private Sale (aka "the gun show loophole")
This is the so-called "gun show loophole" since the myth is that "unlicensed dealers" can sell guns at a gun show without a background check. This is false. There is no such thing as an "unlicensed dealer". BATFE regulations allow a private individual to sell guns from their own personal collection provided such activity is not done as a primary means of business or income.
When those who want to close this loophole talk about "unlicensed dealers", they are lumping in all the vendors at a gun show that aren't selling firearms to make their statistics sound more convincing. Technically, they are correct about "unlicensed dealers" at shows but fail to mention that these dealers are selling ammunition, spare parts, beef jerky, jewelry, books, T-shirts, accessories, cases and militaria and do not require a Federal Firearms License (since they aren't selling guns). They won't tell you that though since it messes up their fraudulent message,
For a private citizen, setting up a table at a gun show to sell a few guns you inherited or don't want anymore is perfectly legal. Do it a few times with regularity however, expect an up-close-and-personal conversation with a BATFE agent. Because then you are "engaging in the business of selling firearms without a license". If it sounds gray, it is. It's a murky line from liquidating a personal collection to becoming an unlicensed (and soon-to-be prosecuted) firearms dealer.
They decide at which point you cross the line from thinning a personal collection to engaging in the business of selling firearms. Anecdotally, I've been told that selling 3-4 firearms a year is sufficient to avoid serious scrutiny.
This activity is perfectly legal and no background check is required. You are required to follow all local, State and Federal laws as the seller or purchaser. You are required to not sell a gun knowingly to someone you believe cannot possess it under the law.
Most importantly, this method applies only to intrastate sales. It is against the law for me to do a private sale to someone who is not a resident of my state. That becomes interstate commerce and when it does, you are required to go through a licensed dealer to perform transfer. There is no exception for this.
Furthermore, I am not allowed to sell guns to a fellow state resident privately if State law says I can't. Some states ban private transfers. Others restrict the types of private sales that can be made. My home state of Maryland, for example, only allows private sales of non-regulated rifles and shotguns. Handguns and regulated firearms (read: "assault weapons") must be transfered through a dealer just like an out-of-state transfer from one individual to another without exception.
As I said, that's the "gun show loophole". It is nothing of the sort since this activity can take place outside of gun shows and usually does. As long as the law is followed, the Government should have no say in how you choose to dispose of your property.
And if you break the law on this (selling to someone out-of-state, to a prohibited person like a drug dealer and so on) and they catch you, you will enjoy an extended stay in a secure Federal housing facility free of charge.
3) Steal or Buy One Through Illegal Means
This is the primary method by which criminals acquire their guns. They simply steal them from law-abiding citizens, usually when they are not home or acquire them through illegal straw purchases via licensed dealers. Buying a gun legally to give to someone who can't have it, such as girlfriend buying it for her crack dealing boyfriend scumbag, is an example of a straw purchase. It is against the law. If the gun controllers want to close a loophole, how about the prosecution "loophole" on such purchases? It is virtually never done. But it is against the law. It just isn't enforced.
A very, very small percentage of guns arrive in criminal hands through unscrupulous dealers. If such acts can be proven, most right supporters like myself would like to see them thrown into a cell for a very long time. Their harm is disproportionate to their numbers and the punishment should be severe. Unfortunately, too many people equate a legal sale to a straw purchaser by a dealer and an unscrupulous dealer selling guns illegally as the same thing. They aren't. In the former, it is the straw purchaser that is the criminal. The criminal is the dealer in the latter. Don't confuse them.
It is not practical or proper to ask a dealer to read the mind of an individual making the purchase. They don't answer the questions as to whether or not you are buying the gun for yourself. You do. If you lie on that form and then sell the gun to someone else who isn't supposed to have it, how is the dealer supposed to know and be liable for your actions?
In conversations I've had with my dealers, all would refuse to sell a gun to someone they believed was making a straw purchase. I've personally witnessed this happen. It's refreshing and pretty normal among firearms dealers.
Regardless, the vast majority of guns land in criminal hands through theft. This is the primary illegal channel.
4) Make One Yourself
This is the subject of this post.
They say pictures are worth a thousand words. Take a look at the following:
Yes, this is a real AK-47. Well, not quite. It is parts from a real AK-47. Specifically, one made 20 years ago and was probably carried by some steely-eyed Romanian conscript waiting for the American Imperialists to pillage the People's land he was guarding near the end of the Cold War.
Here's the shocking part: This is not a firearm. In fact, as far as the law is concerned, this is just a pile of steel and wood and can be ordered and shipped through regular mail without so much as a peep from the Government. Pictures like this make gun banners cry. If some of them believed in God, they might even say God kills a kitten every time someone like me buys stuff like this.
You see, in the USA (and many other countries), the firearm isn't the sum total of all the parts that make up a gun or the bits that make the gun do what guns do like the barrel, bolt, stock, trigger, etc. Here, we consider the firearm the frame (for pistols) or the receiver (for rifles) where the ammunition is held and fed from.
This is a firearm:
This is a DSA FN FAL receiver. Note the cable lock through it. Just following safe storage practices lest someone shoot themselves accidentally.
Yes folks, this really is a gun. Under the laws and regulations as they current stand, this is a rifle (specifically an evil, black scary rifle). It doesn't matter that I haven't attached any of the parts to it yet. This is the part that has the serial number and the part that required me to do the background check and go through the waiting period here in Maryland to acquire. It is an example of #1 from my list of ways to get a gun. When you buy an assembled gun, what you are really paying for is the cost of the extra bits and ll the work that went into attaching those bits to the receiver that you are doing the paperwork on.
But this is about making your own gun. You might notice that one thing is missing from the picture of the AK-47 parts above. There is no receiver. You can see the jagged edges of metal where the receiver of the original rifle has been cut away. Once done, this AK-47 ceases to be a firearm that couldn't even be legally imported here in any way for civilian use and becomes a bunch of gun shaped parts that can be bought and sold freely through the mail.
It is legal to turn this pile of parts back into a working gun provided you follow some laws and regulations in doing so.
What?!?
There are two sets of regulations that cover the making of your own firearm. The first is the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA'68). There is an exception in that law that permits those who don't hold an FFL to make their own firearm for personal use. This is important since you may not know an FFL is not required just for selling guns but making them for sale as well. Every gun maker out there like Remington, Beretta USA, DSArms and so on has a Federal Firearms License that gives them permission to make guns to be sold to dealers, who in turn can sell them to you. The GCA'68 is what brought the licenses into being.
Here is a summation of the exception from GCA'68 that permits non-licensees (us) to make our own guns:
What does this mean? The first highlight part is pretty self-explanatory. It means that you as an individual cannot manufacture a gun for personal use if you are not allowed to own a gun normally. In other words, if you can't go to the gun store and buy a gun through the normal process of passing a background check, you cannot legally make a gun for your own use under any circumstance.
To do so is a crime that will land you in prison.
The second part is more interesting and requires a little explanation.
But, you see, the law only applies to guns assembled from imported parts. So why is it possible for us to walk into a gun store and buy guns that look like AK-47s? That, in fact, are made up from the parts of AK-47s as pictured here.
Because these guns are not imported as the law defines it.
In conjunction with 18 USC 922(r) above, the BATFE publishes regulations that determine how the law is to be applied. The important regulation is what defines an "imported firearm". This is through BATF regulation 178.39. Here it is:
Taken together, 18 USC 922(r) and BATFE regulation 178.39 represent the greatest threat the anti-rights crowed will ever see! What does all this mean?
You keep seeing the phrase "imported parts" in assembling a firearm. Since we are discussing individuals, we are not subject to the exceptions for using imported parts that licensed makers are. We cannot make our own guns using imported parts if that gun is otherwise not allowed to be brought here and sold through licensed dealers.
In BATFE 178.39, I have exposed for you the "manufacturing loophole".
Drum roll, if you please...
If we use non-imported parts made here in the USA and replace them one-for-one for an imported part, once we replace enough imported parts in the gun, the gun ceases to be an "imported" rifle that cannot be sold to one that is considered "Made in the USA" and can be sold like any other gun. This despite the fact that a rifle in the exact same configuration but using Russian steel rather than American steel would be illegal to import for civilian sale.
No one ever said the law has to make sense.
You'll see at the bottom of the regulation above a list of 20 parts that are considered by the BATFE to be the parts of a firearm. These are parts that need to be replaced with USA made parts until we cross the threshold from foreign-made to US made. From the regulation, the key phrase is "no more than 10 imported parts".
In the gun community, this is called the "10 or less" game. Once we replace a significant number of foreign parts with US made equivalents and there are no more than 10 evil, foreign made parts in our gun, it becomes a happy, patriotic, "Made in the USA", red-white-and-blue fine upstanding salable rifle.
What all of this means is if we take a parts kit like our AK-47, buy US-made parts in the proper number and put them together, we have our very own, perfectly-legal US-made AK-47 pattern rifle.
Pretty cool, eh?
But it gets better!
How is our making our own rifle out of US-made parts the greatest threat to safety the gun control world has ever seen? Remember the FAL receiver that was legally purchased and had the paperwork done on? Well, what you may not realize is that the receiver is one of the US-made parts you can use in lieu of a foreign-made one. In the case of the AK pattern rifles, you have to use a US-made receiver since the original foreign one is cut up.
There are US companies that make AK receivers just like the FAL receiver I showed you. Legally speaking, buying one of those receivers is the same as buying a complete AK pattern rifle. Here in Maryland, it would be subject to the 8 day waiting period and "one gun a month" law that the complete rifle would be.
But there's nothing in the law that says you have to buy a pre-made receiver. Hold on to your seats, folks because here it comes...
You can legally manufacture your own firearm receiver and assemble a gun upon it without any paperwork whatsoever!!!
That is the "manufacturing loophole". Provided you are not prohibited under Federal or State law, as mentioned previously, from buying a gun in the configuration you want to build, you are free to make it yourself without any Government involvement in the process at all.
For an AK-47, the material cost to do this is about $20. Take a look:
This is a future AK-47 receiver. And like the parts kit, you can order these through the mail without any paperwork at all. The reason is because, unlike the FAL receiver, this is not yet a firearm legally speaking.
Other BATFE regulations define the point at which a receiver is considered complete enough to require a serial number and be subject to all the regulations that govern guns sales. For all intents and purposes, any receiver or frame with a level of completion of 80 percent or less is not considered a firearm under the law. As such, they can be bought and sold through the mail freely.
Above is a Tapco AK flat. You'll notice that it has all of the necessary holes drilled. But an AK receiver is square. For AK's, this is an 80 percent receiver. In order to turn it into a legal firearm, this receiver flat must be bent in a press, be heat treated for strength and have some additional finishing work done on it. As a general rule, the BATFE considers a receiver at 80 percent when it would require about 20 hours of additional work to make it finished and ready for assembly.
Why would people do this? There are many reasons.
Contrary to popular gun banner belief, people generally don't do this to avoid government scrutiny and potential gun registration. You've got to be pretty dedicated to want a gun the Government knows nothing about and go to the effort of making it.
Which becomes pointless if you sit here and broadcast your intentions to the world as I've just done here.
The two main reasons to do something like this are pride and economy. People do this to get a gun that is truly theirs. Not some member of a production line with whatever cosmetics the owner wants to throw on but a one-of-a-kind, unique to you firearm. Admittedly, the homebuilt gun may or may not shoot better than the off-the-shelf equivalent but unlike the one bought in the gun store, the owner will know every inch of the gun and take pride in the love (and sometimes blood) shed on their newest member to their collection.
The other is economy. Done properly, a homebuilt firearm generally costs from 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of its new equivalent. Your time might equate to it costing more but most folks like me don't consider their personal time into the cost of an acquisition.
Done right with the cost of the parts kit and all of the US made parts needed to make it legally compliant, a AK-47 pattern rifle will cost $180-$250 in total parts to complete. Given that a basic, no-frills AK-47 semi-auto Romanian (which is what I've pictured here) will run retail around $450, this is a good deal.
There are some caveats to this activity. One, you had better be very aware of the laws that govern the making your own firearm. I've given you the big ones here. But you as the builder are responsible for ensuring you are in compliance with your State and local laws. If your area bans AK-47 pattern rifles, then it is not legal for you to make one.
Follow the rule of "If you can't buy it here, you can't build here either.". Maryland is pretty straightforward on this despite the BS nature of our laws. I couldn't imagine being a home builder in California.
Another is you have to be the one doing the work or have that work done under your direct supervision. This is very, very important when making your own receiver. If you buy an AK flat and give it to your buddy at the machine shop to bend and heat treat for you, you're both in violation of the law for engaging in the manufacture of a firearm without a Federal Firearm License.
At a minimum, you have to be standing over his shoulder telling him what to do while he's doing it. Even then, you might find yourself unwanted attention if you didn't thoroughly document your work. I go one further and reverse the roles and have him tell me what to do and never have his hands touch the receiver at all.
Or do it yourself with no one around. For the paranoid, videotape your manufacturing so you can prove you and only you were the one involved. If you ever find yourself crossing swords with the BATFE over this, you'll lose no matter how in the right you are. Avoid it at all costs. Document, document, document. On that topic, save the packages and receipts for your US-made parts so you can prove you didn't use a foul Commie trigger instead of a free American one. It may mean the difference between freedom or a jail cell. A $2 piece of metal isn't worth it.
Lastly, you cannot sell your homemade firearm under most circumstances. There are exceptions. Legally, you are not required to place any markings like a serial number on your gun. I would strongly advise you to do so, preferably in a permanent fashion. The reason is you don't want to be explaining to a park ranger or the police officer that just pulled you over coming back from the range why your AK-47 rifle has no serial number on it. You might be in the right but you might be spending several hours or days as a guest of the local constabulary until they check it out.
Make up a serial number and get it engraved or stamped onto your new toy. An embossing kit is cheap and well worth it. Some folks stamp their full names and addresses onto their homemade guns. If you ever plan to put a silencer or short-barrel onto it in the future, you'll need to do this anyway. At a minimum, a unique sequence that you can use for identification and insurance purposes.
The law says you don't have to. Exercise some common sense and do so anyway. It will reduce the pucker factor of any Government official you may come into contact with over your newest member of the gun cabinet.
Now do you see why this is the greatest threat the gun banners have ever seen? One, these are untraceable firearms. To them, if the Government isn't involved, it has to be a loophole. Two, it goes against their notion of "guns are complicated and must be controlled". If you're good with hand tools, you can build your own gun on a kitchen table.
Three, you can't uninvent this technology. This goes against their long-term goal that if guns are banned, eventually guns will disappear. Not as long as there are parts kits and hand tools around. Or pieces of pipe from the hardware store for that matter. Google "home made gun" sometime. You'd be amazed how easy it is with a little skill to make crude firearms. Hell, Afghans and Pakistanis routinely turn out complete revolvers and real full-auto AK-47 rifles from mudbrick huts given enough time. As long as we have the tools, we'll have the means to arm ourselves.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to imagine what would happen if guns were banned and the means to make them goes underground. Shootings was a secondary effect of Prohibition with rum runners protecting their lucrative business. Imagine if the guns themselves was the lucrative business? I think it would make the Prohibition period seems downright peaceful.
Home gunsmithing is rarely talked about. But it does exist. I've gone from gun neophyte to building my first rifles in the space of only a few years. It is well within the grasp of any dedicated hobbyist. If you're shooting on a budget, it can be a way to enhance your collection at less cost.
Forget about the gun show loophole. It's nothing. This is the "gun grow loophole". Be aware of this though because if they ever close the "gun show loophole", this one will be next in their sights.
Off to bend some receivers and build a baby killing death machine!
* A reference to the British sci-fi sitcom "Red Dwarf", a personal favorite from the episode "Back to Reality" where there are election posters in the background that read "Vote Fascist for a 3rd glorious decade of TOTAL law enforcement!". Pretty much sums up far left thinking on how they would be really running things.
With that said...
Everything that might allow someone to own a gun is a "loophole" to the anti-gun forces. If the law doesn't forbid it somehow explicitly or likewise spell it out as allowed in detail, it must be a loophole.
Today we are going to discuss biggest so-called "loophole" going when it comes to guns. Many anti-gun forces toss out the "gun show loophole" as their big one to close. They describe it as a threat to public safety and one that undermines their ability to institute many glorious decades of total gun control*.
Unfortunately for them, they're wrong. Even if they manage to close the non-existent "gun show loophole", they've manage to miss the Big One. Or maybe not. Maybe this one is next on the list when they are done with the gun shows.
For the record, this is not a loophole. What I am going to show you is part of existing BATFE regulations. It is a permitted activity under the law.
For the necessary background, here are the four ways in which one can acquire a gun in this country:
1) Buy One Through a Licensed Dealer (FFL)
Number one is the most familiar one to the average person. It is where you go to a dealer, either at a store front or a gun show, fill out the background check paperwork, pass the check and take your gun home. I've discussed or commented on this process in the past and won't elaborate further here.
2) Buy One Intrastate Through a Private Sale (aka "the gun show loophole")
This is the so-called "gun show loophole" since the myth is that "unlicensed dealers" can sell guns at a gun show without a background check. This is false. There is no such thing as an "unlicensed dealer". BATFE regulations allow a private individual to sell guns from their own personal collection provided such activity is not done as a primary means of business or income.
When those who want to close this loophole talk about "unlicensed dealers", they are lumping in all the vendors at a gun show that aren't selling firearms to make their statistics sound more convincing. Technically, they are correct about "unlicensed dealers" at shows but fail to mention that these dealers are selling ammunition, spare parts, beef jerky, jewelry, books, T-shirts, accessories, cases and militaria and do not require a Federal Firearms License (since they aren't selling guns). They won't tell you that though since it messes up their fraudulent message,
For a private citizen, setting up a table at a gun show to sell a few guns you inherited or don't want anymore is perfectly legal. Do it a few times with regularity however, expect an up-close-and-personal conversation with a BATFE agent. Because then you are "engaging in the business of selling firearms without a license". If it sounds gray, it is. It's a murky line from liquidating a personal collection to becoming an unlicensed (and soon-to-be prosecuted) firearms dealer.
They decide at which point you cross the line from thinning a personal collection to engaging in the business of selling firearms. Anecdotally, I've been told that selling 3-4 firearms a year is sufficient to avoid serious scrutiny.
This activity is perfectly legal and no background check is required. You are required to follow all local, State and Federal laws as the seller or purchaser. You are required to not sell a gun knowingly to someone you believe cannot possess it under the law.
Most importantly, this method applies only to intrastate sales. It is against the law for me to do a private sale to someone who is not a resident of my state. That becomes interstate commerce and when it does, you are required to go through a licensed dealer to perform transfer. There is no exception for this.
Furthermore, I am not allowed to sell guns to a fellow state resident privately if State law says I can't. Some states ban private transfers. Others restrict the types of private sales that can be made. My home state of Maryland, for example, only allows private sales of non-regulated rifles and shotguns. Handguns and regulated firearms (read: "assault weapons") must be transfered through a dealer just like an out-of-state transfer from one individual to another without exception.
As I said, that's the "gun show loophole". It is nothing of the sort since this activity can take place outside of gun shows and usually does. As long as the law is followed, the Government should have no say in how you choose to dispose of your property.
And if you break the law on this (selling to someone out-of-state, to a prohibited person like a drug dealer and so on) and they catch you, you will enjoy an extended stay in a secure Federal housing facility free of charge.
3) Steal or Buy One Through Illegal Means
This is the primary method by which criminals acquire their guns. They simply steal them from law-abiding citizens, usually when they are not home or acquire them through illegal straw purchases via licensed dealers. Buying a gun legally to give to someone who can't have it, such as girlfriend buying it for her crack dealing boyfriend scumbag, is an example of a straw purchase. It is against the law. If the gun controllers want to close a loophole, how about the prosecution "loophole" on such purchases? It is virtually never done. But it is against the law. It just isn't enforced.
A very, very small percentage of guns arrive in criminal hands through unscrupulous dealers. If such acts can be proven, most right supporters like myself would like to see them thrown into a cell for a very long time. Their harm is disproportionate to their numbers and the punishment should be severe. Unfortunately, too many people equate a legal sale to a straw purchaser by a dealer and an unscrupulous dealer selling guns illegally as the same thing. They aren't. In the former, it is the straw purchaser that is the criminal. The criminal is the dealer in the latter. Don't confuse them.
It is not practical or proper to ask a dealer to read the mind of an individual making the purchase. They don't answer the questions as to whether or not you are buying the gun for yourself. You do. If you lie on that form and then sell the gun to someone else who isn't supposed to have it, how is the dealer supposed to know and be liable for your actions?
In conversations I've had with my dealers, all would refuse to sell a gun to someone they believed was making a straw purchase. I've personally witnessed this happen. It's refreshing and pretty normal among firearms dealers.
Regardless, the vast majority of guns land in criminal hands through theft. This is the primary illegal channel.
4) Make One Yourself
This is the subject of this post.
They say pictures are worth a thousand words. Take a look at the following:
Yes, this is a real AK-47. Well, not quite. It is parts from a real AK-47. Specifically, one made 20 years ago and was probably carried by some steely-eyed Romanian conscript waiting for the American Imperialists to pillage the People's land he was guarding near the end of the Cold War.Here's the shocking part: This is not a firearm. In fact, as far as the law is concerned, this is just a pile of steel and wood and can be ordered and shipped through regular mail without so much as a peep from the Government. Pictures like this make gun banners cry. If some of them believed in God, they might even say God kills a kitten every time someone like me buys stuff like this.
You see, in the USA (and many other countries), the firearm isn't the sum total of all the parts that make up a gun or the bits that make the gun do what guns do like the barrel, bolt, stock, trigger, etc. Here, we consider the firearm the frame (for pistols) or the receiver (for rifles) where the ammunition is held and fed from.
This is a firearm:
This is a DSA FN FAL receiver. Note the cable lock through it. Just following safe storage practices lest someone shoot themselves accidentally.Yes folks, this really is a gun. Under the laws and regulations as they current stand, this is a rifle (specifically an evil, black scary rifle). It doesn't matter that I haven't attached any of the parts to it yet. This is the part that has the serial number and the part that required me to do the background check and go through the waiting period here in Maryland to acquire. It is an example of #1 from my list of ways to get a gun. When you buy an assembled gun, what you are really paying for is the cost of the extra bits and ll the work that went into attaching those bits to the receiver that you are doing the paperwork on.
But this is about making your own gun. You might notice that one thing is missing from the picture of the AK-47 parts above. There is no receiver. You can see the jagged edges of metal where the receiver of the original rifle has been cut away. Once done, this AK-47 ceases to be a firearm that couldn't even be legally imported here in any way for civilian use and becomes a bunch of gun shaped parts that can be bought and sold freely through the mail.
It is legal to turn this pile of parts back into a working gun provided you follow some laws and regulations in doing so.
What?!?
There are two sets of regulations that cover the making of your own firearm. The first is the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA'68). There is an exception in that law that permits those who don't hold an FFL to make their own firearm for personal use. This is important since you may not know an FFL is not required just for selling guns but making them for sale as well. Every gun maker out there like Remington, Beretta USA, DSArms and so on has a Federal Firearms License that gives them permission to make guns to be sold to dealers, who in turn can sell them to you. The GCA'68 is what brought the licenses into being.
Here is a summation of the exception from GCA'68 that permits non-licensees (us) to make our own guns:
A – With certain exceptions a firearm may be made by a nonlicensee provided it is not for sale and the maker is not prohibited from possessing firearms. However, a person is prohibited from making a semiautomatic assault weapon or assembling a nonsporting semiautomatic rifle or nonsporting shotgun from imported parts. An application to make a machinegun will not be approved unless documentation is submitted showing that the firearm is being made for a federal or state agency. [18 U. S. C. 922( o), (r), (v), and 923, 27 CFR 178.39, 178.40, 178.41 and 179.105]Emphasis mine.
What does this mean? The first highlight part is pretty self-explanatory. It means that you as an individual cannot manufacture a gun for personal use if you are not allowed to own a gun normally. In other words, if you can't go to the gun store and buy a gun through the normal process of passing a background check, you cannot legally make a gun for your own use under any circumstance.
To do so is a crime that will land you in prison.
The second part is more interesting and requires a little explanation.
...prohibited from making a semiautomatic assault weapon or assembling a nonsporting semiautomatic rifle or nonsporting shotgun from imported parts.This is a somewhat inaccurate summation of the actual law that covers this since the "semiautomatic assault weapon" regulation was repealed in 2004 (18 USC 922(v), the so-called Federal "Assault Weapon Ban"). The law that applies here is 18 USC 922(r):
(r) It shall be unlawful for any person to assemble from imported parts any semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun which is identical to any rifle or shotgun prohibited from importation under section 925 (d)(3) of this chapter as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes except that this subsection shall not apply to—The key words are the ones I have highlighted here. The law prohibits someone from importing a gun made outside the USA that the Attorney General feels doesn't have a sporting use. And the Attorney General decides what "sporting use" means. In others, whatever the AG feels about a particular gun. Self-defense or because we like the way a particular gun looks or shoots doesn't qualify. The AK-47 is one of the guns that is considered by the AG to not have a "sporting use".
- (1) the assembly of any such rifle or shotgun for sale or distribution by a licensed manufacturer to the United States or any department or agency thereof or to any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or
- (2) the assembly of any such rifle or shotgun for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Attorney General.
But, you see, the law only applies to guns assembled from imported parts. So why is it possible for us to walk into a gun store and buy guns that look like AK-47s? That, in fact, are made up from the parts of AK-47s as pictured here.
Because these guns are not imported as the law defines it.
In conjunction with 18 USC 922(r) above, the BATFE publishes regulations that determine how the law is to be applied. The important regulation is what defines an "imported firearm". This is through BATF regulation 178.39. Here it is:
[Code of Federal Regulations]Again, emphasis is mine.
[Title 27, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 27CFR178.39]
[Page 1149]
TITLE 27--ALCOHOL, TOBACCO PRODUCTS AND FIREARMS
CHAPTER I--BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS, DEPARTMENT OF THE
TREASURY
PART 178--COMMERCE IN FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION--Table of Contents
Subpart C--Administrative and Miscellaneous Provisions
Sec. 178.39 Assembly of semiautomatic rifles or shotguns.
(a) No person shall assemble a semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun using more than 10 of the imported parts listed in paragraph (c) of this section if the assembled firearm is prohibited from importation under section 925(d)(3) as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.
(b) The provisions of this section shall not apply to:
(1) The assembly of such rifle or shotgun for sale or distribution by a licensed manufacturer to the United States or any department or agency thereof or to any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or
(2) The assembly of such rifle or shotgun for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Director under the provisions of Sec. 178.151; or
(3) The repair of any rifle or shotgun which had been imported into or assembled in the United States prior to November 30, 1990, or the replacement of any part of such firearm.
(c) For purposes of this section, the term imported parts are:
(1) Frames, receivers, receiver castings, forgings or stampings
(2) Barrels
(3) Barrel extensions
(4) Mounting blocks (trunions)
(5) Muzzle attachments
(6) Bolts
(7) Bolt carriers
(8) Operating rods
(9) Gas pistons
(10) Trigger housings
(11) Triggers
(12) Hammers
(13) Sears
(14) Disconnectors
(15) Buttstocks
(16) Pistol grips
(17) Forearms, handguards
(18) Magazine bodies
(19) Followers
(20) Floorplates
[T.D. ATF-346, 58 FR 40589, July 29, 1993]
Taken together, 18 USC 922(r) and BATFE regulation 178.39 represent the greatest threat the anti-rights crowed will ever see! What does all this mean?
You keep seeing the phrase "imported parts" in assembling a firearm. Since we are discussing individuals, we are not subject to the exceptions for using imported parts that licensed makers are. We cannot make our own guns using imported parts if that gun is otherwise not allowed to be brought here and sold through licensed dealers.
In BATFE 178.39, I have exposed for you the "manufacturing loophole".
Drum roll, if you please...
If we use non-imported parts made here in the USA and replace them one-for-one for an imported part, once we replace enough imported parts in the gun, the gun ceases to be an "imported" rifle that cannot be sold to one that is considered "Made in the USA" and can be sold like any other gun. This despite the fact that a rifle in the exact same configuration but using Russian steel rather than American steel would be illegal to import for civilian sale.
No one ever said the law has to make sense.
You'll see at the bottom of the regulation above a list of 20 parts that are considered by the BATFE to be the parts of a firearm. These are parts that need to be replaced with USA made parts until we cross the threshold from foreign-made to US made. From the regulation, the key phrase is "no more than 10 imported parts".
In the gun community, this is called the "10 or less" game. Once we replace a significant number of foreign parts with US made equivalents and there are no more than 10 evil, foreign made parts in our gun, it becomes a happy, patriotic, "Made in the USA", red-white-and-blue fine upstanding salable rifle.
What all of this means is if we take a parts kit like our AK-47, buy US-made parts in the proper number and put them together, we have our very own, perfectly-legal US-made AK-47 pattern rifle.
Pretty cool, eh?
But it gets better!
How is our making our own rifle out of US-made parts the greatest threat to safety the gun control world has ever seen? Remember the FAL receiver that was legally purchased and had the paperwork done on? Well, what you may not realize is that the receiver is one of the US-made parts you can use in lieu of a foreign-made one. In the case of the AK pattern rifles, you have to use a US-made receiver since the original foreign one is cut up.
There are US companies that make AK receivers just like the FAL receiver I showed you. Legally speaking, buying one of those receivers is the same as buying a complete AK pattern rifle. Here in Maryland, it would be subject to the 8 day waiting period and "one gun a month" law that the complete rifle would be.
But there's nothing in the law that says you have to buy a pre-made receiver. Hold on to your seats, folks because here it comes...
You can legally manufacture your own firearm receiver and assemble a gun upon it without any paperwork whatsoever!!!
That is the "manufacturing loophole". Provided you are not prohibited under Federal or State law, as mentioned previously, from buying a gun in the configuration you want to build, you are free to make it yourself without any Government involvement in the process at all.
For an AK-47, the material cost to do this is about $20. Take a look:
This is a future AK-47 receiver. And like the parts kit, you can order these through the mail without any paperwork at all. The reason is because, unlike the FAL receiver, this is not yet a firearm legally speaking.Other BATFE regulations define the point at which a receiver is considered complete enough to require a serial number and be subject to all the regulations that govern guns sales. For all intents and purposes, any receiver or frame with a level of completion of 80 percent or less is not considered a firearm under the law. As such, they can be bought and sold through the mail freely.
Above is a Tapco AK flat. You'll notice that it has all of the necessary holes drilled. But an AK receiver is square. For AK's, this is an 80 percent receiver. In order to turn it into a legal firearm, this receiver flat must be bent in a press, be heat treated for strength and have some additional finishing work done on it. As a general rule, the BATFE considers a receiver at 80 percent when it would require about 20 hours of additional work to make it finished and ready for assembly.
Why would people do this? There are many reasons.
Contrary to popular gun banner belief, people generally don't do this to avoid government scrutiny and potential gun registration. You've got to be pretty dedicated to want a gun the Government knows nothing about and go to the effort of making it.
Which becomes pointless if you sit here and broadcast your intentions to the world as I've just done here.
The two main reasons to do something like this are pride and economy. People do this to get a gun that is truly theirs. Not some member of a production line with whatever cosmetics the owner wants to throw on but a one-of-a-kind, unique to you firearm. Admittedly, the homebuilt gun may or may not shoot better than the off-the-shelf equivalent but unlike the one bought in the gun store, the owner will know every inch of the gun and take pride in the love (and sometimes blood) shed on their newest member to their collection.
The other is economy. Done properly, a homebuilt firearm generally costs from 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of its new equivalent. Your time might equate to it costing more but most folks like me don't consider their personal time into the cost of an acquisition.
Done right with the cost of the parts kit and all of the US made parts needed to make it legally compliant, a AK-47 pattern rifle will cost $180-$250 in total parts to complete. Given that a basic, no-frills AK-47 semi-auto Romanian (which is what I've pictured here) will run retail around $450, this is a good deal.
There are some caveats to this activity. One, you had better be very aware of the laws that govern the making your own firearm. I've given you the big ones here. But you as the builder are responsible for ensuring you are in compliance with your State and local laws. If your area bans AK-47 pattern rifles, then it is not legal for you to make one.
Follow the rule of "If you can't buy it here, you can't build here either.". Maryland is pretty straightforward on this despite the BS nature of our laws. I couldn't imagine being a home builder in California.
Another is you have to be the one doing the work or have that work done under your direct supervision. This is very, very important when making your own receiver. If you buy an AK flat and give it to your buddy at the machine shop to bend and heat treat for you, you're both in violation of the law for engaging in the manufacture of a firearm without a Federal Firearm License.
At a minimum, you have to be standing over his shoulder telling him what to do while he's doing it. Even then, you might find yourself unwanted attention if you didn't thoroughly document your work. I go one further and reverse the roles and have him tell me what to do and never have his hands touch the receiver at all.
Or do it yourself with no one around. For the paranoid, videotape your manufacturing so you can prove you and only you were the one involved. If you ever find yourself crossing swords with the BATFE over this, you'll lose no matter how in the right you are. Avoid it at all costs. Document, document, document. On that topic, save the packages and receipts for your US-made parts so you can prove you didn't use a foul Commie trigger instead of a free American one. It may mean the difference between freedom or a jail cell. A $2 piece of metal isn't worth it.
Lastly, you cannot sell your homemade firearm under most circumstances. There are exceptions. Legally, you are not required to place any markings like a serial number on your gun. I would strongly advise you to do so, preferably in a permanent fashion. The reason is you don't want to be explaining to a park ranger or the police officer that just pulled you over coming back from the range why your AK-47 rifle has no serial number on it. You might be in the right but you might be spending several hours or days as a guest of the local constabulary until they check it out.
Make up a serial number and get it engraved or stamped onto your new toy. An embossing kit is cheap and well worth it. Some folks stamp their full names and addresses onto their homemade guns. If you ever plan to put a silencer or short-barrel onto it in the future, you'll need to do this anyway. At a minimum, a unique sequence that you can use for identification and insurance purposes.
The law says you don't have to. Exercise some common sense and do so anyway. It will reduce the pucker factor of any Government official you may come into contact with over your newest member of the gun cabinet.
Now do you see why this is the greatest threat the gun banners have ever seen? One, these are untraceable firearms. To them, if the Government isn't involved, it has to be a loophole. Two, it goes against their notion of "guns are complicated and must be controlled". If you're good with hand tools, you can build your own gun on a kitchen table.
Three, you can't uninvent this technology. This goes against their long-term goal that if guns are banned, eventually guns will disappear. Not as long as there are parts kits and hand tools around. Or pieces of pipe from the hardware store for that matter. Google "home made gun" sometime. You'd be amazed how easy it is with a little skill to make crude firearms. Hell, Afghans and Pakistanis routinely turn out complete revolvers and real full-auto AK-47 rifles from mudbrick huts given enough time. As long as we have the tools, we'll have the means to arm ourselves.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to imagine what would happen if guns were banned and the means to make them goes underground. Shootings was a secondary effect of Prohibition with rum runners protecting their lucrative business. Imagine if the guns themselves was the lucrative business? I think it would make the Prohibition period seems downright peaceful.
Home gunsmithing is rarely talked about. But it does exist. I've gone from gun neophyte to building my first rifles in the space of only a few years. It is well within the grasp of any dedicated hobbyist. If you're shooting on a budget, it can be a way to enhance your collection at less cost.
Forget about the gun show loophole. It's nothing. This is the "gun grow loophole". Be aware of this though because if they ever close the "gun show loophole", this one will be next in their sights.
Off to bend some receivers and build a baby killing death machine!
* A reference to the British sci-fi sitcom "Red Dwarf", a personal favorite from the episode "Back to Reality" where there are election posters in the background that read "Vote Fascist for a 3rd glorious decade of TOTAL law enforcement!". Pretty much sums up far left thinking on how they would be really running things.
2 comments:
http://www.homegunsmith.com/
Great bunch of guys over there, and some really neat stuff.
Also, in case you want to do things a little different...
http://www.geocities.com/elmgrove1765/project6/project6.html
Oh, and another thing, under what constitutional authority does one person have the power to declare a "sporting" requirement for something meant as a means of defense or sustenance? It seems like THAT needs to be the next thing to go to the courts. By limiting the availability of suitable arms they are clearly limiting the militia as well as national security...sounds a bit treasonous.
For the more dedicated home envireonment reciever production.
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